24 Thread PowerEdge R710 with 2xGPU PCIe x16 Gaming, Video Editing, Super Server for under $900

How I modified a 24 Thread (Dual Xeon X5660) Dell PowerEdge R710 PCIe x8 server to work with a PCIe x16 nVIDIA GTX 970 and an nVIDIA Quadro K4000 at the same time for a low power, super Gaming, Video Editing Compute Server for under $900.

The build materials:
1. 1x PCIe 6pin male to 8pin male GPU power connector cable
2. 2x PCIe 8pin female to 2x 6+2pin Male GPU power connector cable
3. Flat tip soldering iron
4. Wire cutters
5. ~2inch X 2inch scrap straight-edge PCB board
6. 1x dual slot low power GPU like the nVIDIA GTX 970
7. 1x single slot low power GPU like the nVIDIA Quadro K4000
8. 1x low power, high IOPS server like PowerEdge R710

The PowerEdge R710 is a low power, general purpose server that has a high IOPS architecture meant for multi-user, balanced data & compute performance but lacks GPU support necessary for additional compute intensive gaming, CAD work, and other intense mathematical calculations.

The nVIDIA GTX 970 is a dual slot, low power (TDP=145W), high performance (1665 CUDA Cores) GPU. It's currently assigned to Win10 VM running on CPU 2/14, 3/15, 4/16, 5/17.

The nVIDIA Quadro K4000 a single slot, low power (TDP=80W), high performance (769 CUDA Cores) GPU. It's currently assigned to Win10 VM running on CPU 8/20, 9/21, 10/22, 11/23.

Total observed max power is 285W when all GPUs are running in 2 separate Virtual Machines. The server is left on 24/7 and idles at about 150W. It's currently servicing Nextcloud, SSL, 2 Video Editing VMs, 1 Windows Office VM, 1 Ubuntu VM.

Here's a link to a diagram of this use case.
https://nextcloud.fusionconfusion.net...
The link goes to the NextCloud server that is running on this very server build you're watch.

The 2 Video Editing VMs can also be used for high performance gaming servers. I haven't done this yet because I don't own any high performance PC games. If someone wants to donate a game for me to try, that would be awesome!

[Future]
Since this initial project, I’ve developed a new, faster method to notch the PCIe slots using a router and to tap PCIe power using solder-less blade contacts. If you’re interested in this modification technique, put down a comment on what you want to know and I'll find some time to put together a video. Additionally, I reduced TDP to 273W and gained about 700 G3D compute power by swapping the Quadro K4000 with a Quadro K2200.

Thanks go to “SpaceInvader One” for unRAID tutorials. Thank you, Ed!

Thanks also to the folks at LimeTech for bringing unRAID! Best overall reliability, stability, flexibility of any RAID system.